Category: Allergy-Friendly Cleaning Products

Here, look at this pretty photo of Star Island’s research center, as my bathtub isn’t that exciting.

Why not start the cleaning series with the deep cleaning of scrubbing?  This is a method more than a recipe, and works on bathtubs as well as kitchen and bathroom sinks.

Now if you do some searching online, you will find lots of recipes to make scrubs for this purpose.  I’ve tried a few, but I’ve found my method to be just as effective, and more importantly, a little easier.

Sinks and Tubs

You need the following:

• a cleaning cloth or sponge (I prefer terrycloth washrags)
• baking soda
• castille or other liquid soap, scented with essential oils if you like
• water
• a dirty sink or bathtub

Wet the bathtub.  I do this by turning the shower on for a minute.

Sprinkle the tub with baking soda.  I have a large plastic container once used for a massive quantity of Italian Seasoning that I got from a recycling bin.  It’s perfect for this.

Wet your cloth, and add a tablespoon or so of castille soap.

Scrub.

Rinse.

It really is that easy.  This make take a bit more rinsing than your commercial cleansers do, but any residue left on your sink or tub is non-toxic.  If you have kids who use your bathtub or pets who like to lick the water out of the tub, you don’t need to worry.

Toilets

This method also works for toilets, just using your toilet brush instead of your cloth.  Here, I do add a few drops of essential oil for freshening up, but it’s not necessary.

Alternately, sprinkle your toilet bowl with baking soda and add about a cup of white vinegar.  Let it foam, then scrub with your toilet brush.

Now, I am aware that this cleaning method doesn’t likely have the germ and microbe killing powers of, say, bleach.  But I don’t feel the need to fully disinfect the toilet — I don’t eat out of it — and cleaning it will get rid of most of the bacteria.

Drains

Now, since I have everything out anyway, I usually treat the drains at this time, too.  This will not remove a clog in your drain, but it will keep things moving along in a reasonable manner.

For sinks, dump about 1/4 cup of baking soda down the drain.  Then slowly pour a cup or so of white vinegar down after it.  I usually don’t measure the vinegar — I just pour slowly until it stops foaming in a satisfying manner.  Don’t use the sink/drain for 30 minutes or so, to let the vinegar/baking soda volcano do its work throughout.  (To be honest, I don’t know if this is necessary or even useful, but it sounds like a good idea and I use it as an excuse to take a break from cleaning.)

For extra drain clog-monster banishing power, follow this with a pot or kettle full of boiling water.

For the skeptics, I do not have a garbage disposal, so bits of food do go directly down my kitchen drain.  I do this treatment every 3 to 4 months.  In 5 years, I have never needed a chemical drain cleaner on my kitchen sink, which is good, because have you read the warnings on those?  They’re scary.

So this is a very simple and cheap way of cleaning that is also allergen-friendly and environmentally-friendly.  Got any tips you’d like to share?

New Year, new resolutions, right?  I have been transitioning to chemical-free cleaning for the past few years.  When I moved into my current place, I spent some house with ammonia-based cleaner in the kitchen, and while it needed the heavy-duty, chemical-laden cleaner, I felt awful afterwards.  Since then, I’ve been making my own.  So we’re going to talk, here, about cleaning for the next few Wednesdays.  Denise addressed cleaning and caring for yourself if you have allergies — specifically coconut allergies, though all her products were great for anyone.  I’m going to talk about cleaning your place.

Beyond my food allergies, I have environmental allergies to beat the band.  I am allergic to almost everything and am overly sensitive to fragrances, particularly those of the fake, chemical kind.  Yay me!  Since I can’t live in a bubble, I do my best to make my environment habitable.

My allergist recommended establishing a “safe zone” in my bedroom — if you can minimize the allergens in your bedroom, you have 6-10 hours per day in which you can sleep and recover, giving your body a break.  To do this, wrap your box spring, mattress, and pillows in dust mite protectors.  Wash bedding in hot water weekly to kill dust mites, or use a specially-formulated dust mite killing detergent that works in cold water.  Or, you know, move to Denver (apparently dust mites do not thrive at high altitudes.  Minimize the fabrics in your bedroom — where possible, eliminate carpet, drapery, and upholstery, where mites can thrive unmolested, and where you have those fabrics, treat them with an allergen neutralizing spray (there are different formulations depending on your allergies and whether you have pets in the house). For any sort of specialized allergy products, I have to recommend National Allergy out of north Georgia.  They do not pay me; I like their stuff.

For cleaning my house, though?  I make my own products.  I still buy dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, and floor cleaner.  I am not allergic to coconut or its derivatives, but for those who are, we’ll address that with the laundry detergent.

What will you need to embark upon this adventure?  Not much.  Overall, cleaning your house in an environmentally responsible manner which is also allergen-friendly?  It’s CHEAP.  With this arsenal, you can clean EVERYTHING in your house (not including dishes and laundry and yourself), I swear, and the grand total for cleaning for the year is well under $100, and some of these supplies will last for 5 years or longer.  At first, the castille soap and essential oils might seem a bit spendy, but in the long run, they are not.  They are cheaper than your common cleaning products and safer for use with kids and pets and people.

If you’re ready for this, I recommend the following:

• Cleaning cloths — an old sheet or t-shirt will easily provide you a good number of cloths for dusting, polishing, and screen cleaning.  A cheap stack of terrycloth washcloths will work for scrubbing and spot cleaning (either buy a stack at a home goods store or get some at a thrift store).  For dishes, nothing works better than knitted dish rags.  If you don’t knit, do you know a knitter?  ALL of these can be washed in hot water and dried in the dryer, stay germ-free with regular washing, and are reuseable for years.
• Do you have pets?  You’ll need a pet hair remover unless your vacuum is really awesome (I’ve never owned that great a vacuum).  I really like the Pledge pet hair remover.  It works really well.
• Rubber gloves.  Especially if you have coconut allergies and want to use regular castille soap (which is coconut-based).
• Baking soda — the cheapest and biggest size you can find.
• White vinegar — again, buy the big cheap bottle.
• Vodka — yeah, again, cheap, big, gallon bottle of gut-rot.
• Rubbing alcohol.
• Distilled water.
• Castille soap (yes, this is all coconut-based.  If your coconut allergies are severe, you can use Denise’s olive oil liquid soap (stop before you do the shampoo add-ins, just melt the olive oil bar soap down), but I’m going to say that for cleaning?  It’ll be easier to suck it up and buy gloves.  You are going to rinse everything off, so it won’t linger to touch your skin at all.)  Your best deal is going to be Dr. Bronner’s baby soap if you want to add scents.  I also like the tea tree for cleaning.
• Borax
• Olive oil
• Essential oils — there are a billion “flavors” out there, so sniff ’em all and decide what you like.  Only one warning  — for the products we’ll be spraying on to things (counters or fabrics), you will need to avoid some citrus essential oils, which will stain.  These scents are not like the fake scents added to most cleaning products, which are often likely to trigger environmental allergies and are, by some studies’ conclusion, very bad for your health.

Start your gathering.  We’ll be talking clean for the rest of the month, and you’ll be ready way before spring cleaning begins.